[Original post by Elliot Mogerman – Transferred from yahoogroups.com]
So check out the new pics and we are working on videos but the internet in slovakia is so slow it took 3 hours for 2 videos. There will be more in the next few days. On to the blogs:
This one will be long since it has been a few days since we had access to the internet. We left the b&b in hiedelberg with sunny skies and mid 70’s weather. All I can truly say is the riding was beautiful on my first true day of riding outside the states on this journey. And it took no more than a few minutes for us to get pulled over by german police. I think they knew i am jewish. jk. They saw our bikes and wanted to look at them and make sure our papers were in order. They were nice and we took a few pics with them. Cars are flying by us on the autobahn like we were standing still. White polen was flying by me on the road in a serene way. Butterflies were abundant in rural areas and were very colorful and happy flying by until they smashed into our windshields and helmets. The smell of pine and something reminded me of herbal teas in the air. Lots of flower growth on the side of the roads. Rolling green hills, praries, mountains, forrests, lakes and older eastern european looking towns zoomed by as we rode all day. We stopped at this restaraunt in a small town and I ate jaegersnitzel. The gentlemen next to us ordered a sausage that was like 2 feet long. Mike helped me pitch my tent at night in Garnisch. lol Just with advice on placing it and showed me some features i didnt know about with my condo tent experiences. Snow covered mountains across the street caused a chilly night down to 32 degrees. Mike snores super load so I used ear plugs. Everyone is letting us know they love the live tracking system we use and seeing where we have been and where we are.
Woke up to a very cold morning so went back to bed freezing. And when I woke I was sweating. The temperature changes very quickly in the mountains. We dried equipment from condensation and brushed off all the little bugs. As we left in pursuit of the hitler house and eagle’s nest. Mike fooled around with hi sgps and we ended up in the middle of no where. But this turned out to teach me you can end up with one hell of a ride when that happens. We stumbled on narrow, curvy mountain roads tunnelled through waves of trees overhead, lakes rivers, streams, etc. Even a james bond moment on this super narrow road and a large farm vehicle. Met a fellow rider from holland and camped with him for the night. The campsight had a pool and wonderful views. ,
So we woke up early and the three of us headed to the dokumentation obesalzberg and the eagles nest. Watch this video we post today! The views are indescribable and exquisite. Also, there was this awesome bunker that was really really like a huge underground fortress. We had a 3 hour ride to vienna but turned into a 6 hour ride as we can’t take major roads because of a tax the austrians charge to use the hwy. Pro, we saw a lot of austrian cities and cool towns. Lots of crazy turns wich I scraped my boots on the road leaning into a hard turn going a little too fast which was a first for me. So i adjusted my suspension at the next gas station to avoid doing this again. Con was it took 6 hours and we missed out on checking out the night scene because we were exhausted. Riding beats you up a little when it’s not all freeways and straight. It was a little overcast but still nice.
Two days ago we stayed in the vienna center all day because I was tired of getting eaten alive by the cannibalistic bugs in our campsight. So mike leads me into a building after a car leaves. Looks government and the doors were huge and automatic. Unfortunately we didnt know the auto thing. As we were halfway down a corridor we hear a noise and mike yells the door is closing behind us. Since it is the only way out and a holiday, probably no cars for a while, we darted back the way we entered like indiana jones and jumped through as it was closing before we were locked in for life and probably arrested for tresspassing. Walked all day in sandals and ate this phenominal dessert called speghetti nutella. It was hazel nut ice cream that looked like a bowl of spagetti over whipped cream. Then nuts and warm nutella, like hot fudge, drizzled over the top. Back at camp realizing the sun doesn’t set until around 9pm and rises at 4:30n am we crashed. I watched some videos on my ipod and off to sleep.
Yesterday we rode into slavakia. One road was like rush hour but we zipped through on our bikes avoiding the stop and go. The other day we ran into two italian guys on bmw bikes and found them at our new campsight. Which is patrolled by police because we are by a big recreational public lake. Yes there were a few topless sunbathers. And this cool pulley system where people could ski, wakeboard, and stuff on the water without boats. They speak a combo of polish and russian and I could hear a few russian words i recognized but no sossyhoey. I ate stroganoff i think with sirloin in it and mike had spagetti, not the dessert. We got super drunk with our italian friends. Started with beer at dinner with of course a shot of vodka. Mike and I also had a few beers waiting for them. Then vodka vodka vodka at the pub next door. Furthermore, we had espresso with them and they pull out grappa. This is basically homeade everclear and yes there were cherries in it. Finished that, had more coffee and then I managed to write a little down and off to dreamland.